


Burke's Seven Ride Again

by Huntress79



Category: White Collar
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-08
Updated: 2015-09-08
Packaged: 2018-04-19 20:13:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4759487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the youngest member of the "family" loses something very precious, they all rally together to locate it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burke's Seven Ride Again

**Author's Note:**

> Written for runthecon for sheenianni's prompt "Lost And Found". Based on the artwork by kanarek13. Set post Season 6, with Mr. Caffrey back in New York.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Peter came home one afternoon, Neal in tow and both men carrying bags from their favorite Thai restaurant as well as some sweet treats from "The Greatest Cake", they both noticed the lingering sadness in the house almost immediately. Peter and Neal exchanged a worried look. Had someone died? Was everything okay with El or little Neal?

"El! Hon, we're home, and we have dinner with us!" Peter announced once they were fully inside. When no one answered, the worry raised to new heights in both men.

Peter was about to grab his gun when they suddenly heard the backdoor opening, revealing El, who carried an equal sadness, to them. While Neal took care of the food and kept Satchmo, who had followed El inside, busy, Peter closed the space to his wife. He wasn't used to her being so silent, and so his worry reached new heights.

"Hon, what's wrong? Is our son okay?"

"Yes and no."

"What?" Peter was completely confused by now.

"Peter, I think she means my namesake is physically okay, but not on the mental plane." Neal looked up from his crouch next to Satchmo and caught Elizabeth's eyes. She nodded, Neal got up and joined the two at the kitchen table. "Weren't the two of you over at the new playground in Fort Green Park?" Once again, Elizabeth only nodded. "What happened?"

She took a deep breath before launching into an explanation. "Nothing too serious, it's just...," she sighed, "we lost Mozart."

"What?!?" both men exclaimed at the same moment, causing Elizabeth to chuckle.

For several seconds, Neal and Peter were silent, apparently too shocked to say anything. At long last, Neal found his voice first.

"Does Mozzie know?"

"No." El turned to face Neal. "How on Earth should I explain it to him that we couldn't keep his most valued possession for more than a few years?" To drive the point home, she raised an eyebrow in a silent challenge to Neal.

"El, where's our Neal now?" Suddenly, Peter missed the presence of his son.

"Don't worry, he's upstairs in his room, fast asleep. Which doesn't surprise me, he cried the whole way home."

Neal and Peter only nodded, somehow understanding the pain the young boy was going through.

"You know what we need to do now, Peter?" Neal said with conviction in his voice.

"What do you suggest?" Peter had a hunch, but he wanted to hear his friend's idea first.

"We look for Mozart like you would look for me." Neal made a pause, winked at El and turned his gaze back to Peter. "With wanted posters and road blocks."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At first, Peter thought that Neal made a joke about the posters, but he soon learned that the reformed conman was dead serious about it. Within about an hour, Neal not only had made the posters (Peter wondered where on Earth he got the picture of Mozart), he also had called Diana and Clinton to meet for an emergency at the Burke’s, as well as Mozzie. And the short man was the first to arrive at the rendezvous point.

To his surprise, Neal opened the door. Not that Mozzie was surprised to see Neal at the Burke’s; they both spent a lot of their time here. What caused the surprise was the slightly frightened look in Neal’s eyes, paired with some kind of urgency when the younger man all but chased Mozzie through the house out on the patio in the backyard, where Peter already was waiting for them.

“Neal, Suit, where’s the fire?” Mozzie looked from Peter to Neal and back, an aura of confusion surrounding him. “And what’s with the sad expressions?” Both men remained silent, causing Mozzie to finally sit down. “Alright, who has died?”

“Nobody, Moz, but we have a very big problem,” Neal answered before following Mozzie’s example and also sitting down.

“Which is?”

“We lost Mozart.” Surprising all three men on the table, Elizabeth answered from the doorway.

“Oh,” was all that Mozzie returned.

“Oh?” Neal echoed. “That’s all you got to say?”

Mozzie turned his gaze from Elizabeth to Neal.

“Yes, it is. Look,” he made a gesture to include everyone in the vicinity, “this bear is pretty much as old as I am. Of course it hurts, but there were so many opportunities for me to lose him.” He looked up to Elizabeth. “I will ask around. Maybe I can find a similar one.”

“Actually, Neal and I have a better idea,” Peter spoke up.

Mozzie turned around to Peter, then looked back to Neal. “What do you have in mind?”

But before Peter or Neal could start to explain, Diana and Clinton (who brought Blake along as well) joined them. Elizabeth busied herself in the kitchen, preparing some snacks and drinks for them, and while she was waiting for the bruschetta to be finished, she realized that ʻBurke’s Seven’ were riding again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another hour went by, and in this time span, Neal, Peter, Mozzie, Clinton, Diana and Blake managed to literally cover the whole area between DeKalb Avenue and Fort Green Park with the wanted posters. Blake left them for some time, but only to make more copies at the copy shop of a friend who lived nearby.

When they were done, they all regrouped at the park, searching the whole area with a proverbial fine-tooth comb, but to no avail. Mozart was still very elusive. After making at least four rounds through the park, Peter suggested that they all should head back home, since night was already beginning to fall over New York.

They parted ways with Diana, Clinton and Blake, thanking them for their effort and for sacrificing their spare time.

Several minutes later, the three men entered their (second) home again, exhaustion written all over their faces. Elizabeth, little Neal and Satchmo were in the living room, and while Elizabeth was watching TV, Neal Burke was playing on the carpet with some of the many toy cars he could call his, with Satchmo lying guard between him and the door.

“Hey, guys.” Elizabeth looked up to the men. “Any luck out there?”

“No. Sorry, Hon, but apparently Mozart has learned a thing or two about evading such measures from a certain someone.” Peter looked from Neal to Mozzie and back, causing both men to shrug in an innocent way.

“Peter?” Neal waited until he had the other man’s attention. “We’re talking about a teddy bear here, not a dog or a cat.” Peter gave him a puzzled look. “Live animals can adopt certain mannerisms from humans, not stuffed ones.”

Before Peter had time to react, Neal was back in the kitchen, helping himself to some more bruschetta and a cup of coffee. Mozzie had joined Neal Burke in the meantime in his game of chasing cars, and at the moment, the two of them were competing in who was the better sound maker out of them. Neal came back, a plate in the one, a cup in the other, when all of a sudden the landline began to ring. Taking a deep breath, he slowly put his precious cargo down on the coffee table before sitting down. Elizabeth turned around to grab the phone while trying to suppress a chuckle. The ʻold’ Neal was already a treat, but since coming back in their lives, they all were privy to see another Neal Caffrey – he was more open about pretty much everything, you could see him in casual clothes more often, and most of all, he let the comedian in him out more often. Finally, Elizabeth answered the phone.

“Burke.”

“Mrs. Burke?”

“Yeah, who am I speaking?”

“Hi, my name is Michelle Harrison. I just saw your poster, and I think my son has the item you’re looking for.”

“Don’t get me wrong, but why does your son has my son’s favorite toy?”

“He found it near the northern exit of the park. We looked around everywhere for you, since I saw you and your son holding the bear earlier today, but you were already gone. So I decided that we would keep it overnight and take it with us tomorrow, hoping that either you would show up again or that someone would know your name and I could bring it over to you.”

The woman made a pause, giving Elizabeth the chance to digest her words. Sensing five pairs of eyes staring at her, she took a piece of paper and wrote ʻMozart’ and ʻMichelle Harrison’ on it, then held it up for everyone to read. From the corner of her eyes she saw Peter getting up, probably to call any of his agents to run the name.

“Mrs. Burke? You’re still with me?”

“Oh, yes. I’m sorry, but this whole situation took a toll on me too.”

“I understand. My son lost a toy car a couple of years ago, and my husband and I had quite some trouble to calm him down. Thankfully, it also turned up a short time later, but I still remember how tired I was that day.”

Peter came back, and the nod he sent her direction told Elizabeth that the woman on the other end of the line was just a good citizen.

“Mrs. Harrison, can you tell me your address? I would like to come over with my son and my husband and thank you and your son in person for saving the bear.”

Michelle did as told and both women hung up.

“And?”

Elizabeth had to chuckle. Both Mozzie and Neal had an expectant expression on their faces, and that looked somewhat funny on two grown up men.

“Mozart is saved. Another boy in the park found him at one of the exits,” she got up, heading over to the wardrobe by the door to grab her jacket, “and now we’ll,” she motioned to Peter and her son, “bring him home.”

Peter helped his son putting his jacket and shoes, and before Neal and Mozzie could do anything, the three were out of the door.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As it turned out, the Harrisons lived right across the street from the park. When Peter pulled up to the small house, one of the delivery cars of Mozzie’s bakery stopped right behind them.

“What’s happening now?” Peter muttered, but before he could say more, Elizabeth pulled the delivery man into a hug.

“Emile, what are you doing here?”

“Madame Elizabeth, my boss called and told me to deliver one of my best creations to this address.” Apparently, Mozzie had told the French-born pastry-cook only one half of the story.

“Don’t worry, Emile, we’ll take it from here,” Elizabeth said and grabbed the silver-colored box.

From her doorway, Michelle Harrison watched the exchange. She had seen Elizabeth at the park, and from the first moment on, her gut told her that this woman was a literal angel among the humans, practically glowing from the inside with warmth and a heart of gold.

“Mrs. Harrison?” Elizabeth came up the few steps, stretching out a hand. “I’m Elizabeth Burke, this is my husband Peter, and this is our son Neal.” The women shook hands, and Elizabeth handed the cake over.

“Mrs. Burke, I can’t accept this. We just did what everyone else would have done as well.”

“I know, but you saved not just a bear. You see, this bear has a long history, and our son is not the first young boy who gets some comfort from him.”

Right on time, Michelle’s son Calvin appeared next to him, holding the elusive bear. Before anyone could prepare themselves, Neal, still on his father’s arm, let out a shriek as his eyes caught on the bear.

“Mozzie!”

Michelle recovered from the shock at first, took the bear from her son and held it out for Neal to grab. Which the youngest Burke did immediately and pressed the bear close to his chest, signaling everyone that he would never ever let that bear go.

**_The End_ **


End file.
